The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today.
The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said.
Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added.
Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping (官欣平) said Wutip is to continue moving west-northwest and is expected to turn north near Hainan Island toward Guangdong, China.
While the storm would not directly impact Taiwan, it is to push the entire low-pressure belt northward, Kuan said.
As a result, Taiwan is expected to be impacted from today.
Kuan said that Hualien and Taitung counties in eastern Taiwan, as well as central and southern Taiwan, would be prone to localized heavy rain.
Coastal areas are also expected to see higher waves.
Wutip is expected to remain a tropical storm and would likely make landfall soon after, making further intensification into a moderate typhoon unlikely, Kuan added.
According to CWA records, this is the latest in the year that a Pacific storm has formed since 2016.
That year, the western North Pacific saw a total of 26 typhoons — close to average.
However, a strong Pacific high-pressure system and unfavorable atmospheric circulation in the first half of the year kept typhoons from forming before the end of June.
In 2016, the first typhoon was Nepartak, which formed on July 3, while the latest first typhoon on record was Tropical Storm Nichole, which formed on July 9, 1998, the data showed.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS